The Black Abyss
by Darknesse Sidhe
Summary: The beautiful allure of the darkness, and all of its sorrows.
1. Cheshire Cat's Duty

**Jun Mochizuki, and not I, owns Pandora Hearts.**

**Read Retrace 73, A Note … nearly died. It was one of the most intense, skilfully drawn, emotional chapters ever; the last few chapters have been pretty tragic as well.**

**Still, I can't wait for Retrace 74. I really hope Leo lives and Jack doesn't kill Alice.**

**Wonder what happened to Miranda Barma ….**

THE BLACK ABYSS

ONE

CHESHIRE CAT'S DUTY

There was that form. His favourite and the one he used the most, almost all the time. Scruffy-haired, lean, giant-clawed, fast. The one with the red eye that _she_ had given to him.

He liked it. He liked it even better than his first form, the form of a small black cat with a bell about his neck. That one had been such a small body in such a large, terrifying world. A world of rats and pain of unfairness and where little boys with scissors liked to cut out the eyes of animals, and where Alice and Alice were his only consolations.

That boy. The small, young child, the blond one with the mismatched eyes – one red (_misfortune, misfortune_) and one gold. He had been even smaller than the Alices, and younger. He liked to carry scissors around, just in case. Just in case, it seemed, in case he would need them at any point in time.

And he'd killed Cheshire with them. Gorged out his eyeballs and thrown him at Alice's – the Black Alice, that is – feet, a bloody body of black fur and warm red liquid spilling from the sockets.

_Yes, drive them through, feel the spray of blood, the shiny thin blade of metal slick with scarlet._

And he'd fled to the _other_ Alice, the blinding white one. His soul had dropped into the Abyss, and hurriedly he'd run along, following his instincts, that pulse that drove him to where he knew he'd find Alice. And he had.

But he had been such an ugly thing, his soul. Not only was it painful to wear, but it was huge and terrifying and monstrous, black and deformed and rough and coarse. He'd known it. She'd known it. Everyone whom he'd crossed paths with in that form knew it.

They'd hated it.

Hated him.

And because of that he'd hated himself, too.

So _she_, the wonderful Alice of the Abyss in all her sympathy and kindness, crafted him a body he could store his soul in. This body, and for many reasons his favourite. Since then he'd never, ever gone back to the form of his soul. He'd never, ever wanted to see his own deformity and impurity again.

This was his body now.

He had promised himself – and the Alice the Will of the Abyss – that he'd never let it die. Never let the chains holding his soul to it snap, because this was the Will's present to him, one he'd treasure forever. To let it die was to dishonour the gift of the Will.

And now, oh god, it was dying.

It was dying, because that awful man, the red-eyed one called Break. He was slicing Cheshire's body to pieces with that sword infused with the Mad Hatter's power_. The Mad Hatter_. He never understood why the Will would make such a chain, one that would destroy other chains like himself. The chains were Alice's precious creations. Why would she ever strive to create another that would destroy them, their own kind? But Alice's word was law in the Abyss, and Cheshire would not question her.

Still … the pain was excruciating. He found himself unable to regenerate properly because of _that power_, the power he dreaded. The ability, which the _other_ Alice – the B-Rabbit, she was apparently called now – had as well.

_No … this is my body … you will not take away from me this body … this body that was given to me by the Will of the Abyss …!_

But what was the use? Why did he strive to protect his being? This dimension was cracking, anyways. After living and ruling over this world of the B-Rabbit Alice's memories for so long, he knew it even better than he knew Alice the Will of the Abyss. And he knew it was splitting apart, breaking crumbling to sand and ashes. He could pinpoint why as well. It was because of the B-Rabbit's power.

He hated the B-Rabbit. Since he'd first become aware of the world as a little kitten in the arms of both of the two Alices in dark Alice's body, he'd hated the B-Rabbit, and the name _Oz_. The human Alice had loved the little rabbit doll much better than she'd loved him, and when he'd died and had been saved by the Alice of the Abyss, he'd been dismayed by finding that Oz was there as well.

And because of Jack, Alice of the Abyss had made Oz into what it was now: the B-Rabbit, a chain born to destroy other chains and perhaps even severe the chains of the world themselves. What an awful power. And somehow, it had found its way into the human Alice. Only she wasn't human after all, was she?

"Ah," said Break, glancing at him. "You would do well not to move too much …"

His soul … he hated his soul. But this man, he was forcing him to let go of this form. Yes, he would destroy it. Cheshire would destroy his own body. For Alice's sake, for Alice's sake. For the sake of both the Alices. He would destroy his own body, and kill them all – Alice the B-Rabbit, that blond boy who looked like Jack, Break, and even that other man, the one with the Raven.

He screamed. The core of his being forced itself out of his body, destroying it in the process. His heart cried out at his form's destruction. But it was for the Alices' sake, their sakes. He would kill them all with his soul's hideous and strengthened body, and never let anyone gaze upon human Alice's broken and twisted memories ever again, not even the human Alice herself, because that's what the human Alice had wanted. And by killing them he'd also eliminate enemies of the Will of the Abyss.

_But please_, he thought. _Forgive me, Alice of the Abyss, for destroying the body you so kindly gave me …._

**I called both of the Alices Alice and didn't call the Will of the Abyss Alyss because I wanted to try it. It's a lot harder to avoid confusion ….**

**Review, please?**


	2. Agony of a City Falling

**I don't own Pandora Hearts.**

THE BLACK ABYSS

TWO

AGONY OF A CITY FALLING

It was sudden.

Just like her moods, this change was sudden.

One moment she'd been happy – and why wouldn't she be? Red suited her dear Cheshire wonderfully, and a pitifully naïve stranger had been dropped into the Abyss – deep into the Abyss, right into her heart of her glorious home – with a pair of blood-red eyes. Just the kind the Cheshire Cat needed. It was a wonderful situation full of opportunities, and she'd taken advantage of it.

She'd sunken her fingers into his warm eye socket and plucked it out like humans might pluck berries from the bush, with the difference being the warm scarlet liquid that spilled out with the eye, staining her slender, pale fingers. The stranger screamed, falling backwards and clutching at the place where his eye had been as she stared at the round, delicate object in her hand with interest. Beautiful. She smiled ecstatically as she brought it to her mouth, running her tongue over it and cleansing it partially of the blood before handing it to a nearby doll for safe keeping until there was time to give it to Cheshire.

It wasn't as if the stranger man needed it anyways. Just like with aaaall the "illegal" contractors before him, Alice was going to take away his eyes and turn into a dolly. A wonderful chain, a creation of her own, made from the body and soul of another.

Of course, when she went for the other one the stranger slashed across her front with a short sword in his hand, and it hurt, but it was a lovely kind of pain, a burning, sharp kind rather than the dull aches she loathed. Besides, the shock, fear, anger, horror, and determination in the stranger's eyes was very amusing anyways. She gave him a wide, mad smile that revealed, to an extent, her undiluted instability.

So, in those long seven minutes during in which Kevin Regnard had been dropped into the Abyss, she was perfectly and gloriously happy.

And the change was sudden. So sudden that it even caught her, so used to her own rapidly evolving and altering moods, off guard.

She fell to the ground, screaming in pain and confusion. Usually she didn't mind pain, but this – this was a long, slow, burning mound of ache dropping into her chest, setting it on fire and pulsating quickly. Each throb brought on a new wave of aching agony, and the mound of torture seemed to grow with each rapid pulse, unrelenting and blocking out everything else.

It made what was probably only a few seconds feel like hours.

"Alice!" she heard Cheshire call out in confusion, anguish, and fear. Yes, that was her name – Alice. The Alice of the Abyss. But she couldn't reply. She couldn't breathe; it was too much of an effort. So she lay there on the ground, her body tensed and stiff with pain and her violet eyes wide open, her mouth desperately trying to draw in air while her body protested and the agony kept her immobilized. It was like a band of fire about the inside of her chest, restricting her.

"What is this?" she screamed hopelessly with the energy and breath she had left. "Lots of something … is flowing … into the Abyss?"

It flooded through her. Most of the time, she kept a detached connection with the entire of the Abyss, barely sensing the going-ons if she didn't care to focus. But this time … this time she could feel it. The architecture, the ground, the landscape, the corpses, the panic and the pain of others as they screamed, their city getting plunged into the darkness. Columns and pillars, fountains broken and leaking and stone paths upturned … buildings and tiles and animals and toys and people … and the raw emotion of those who were there, in the heart of the city falling. Anger, apprehension, panic, confusion, pain, and most of all, fear.

Alice of the Abyss had never, ever felt that kind of fear in all her life, be it this body or her sister's, so for a long moment she didn't recognize it, even when it grabbed her and clenched her insides and made her veins run cold and her heart skip beats with it. Fear as dark as a storm and as cold as ice, so strong and powerful it left her frozen and breathless.

Breathless … the pain was gone, that ripping agony that had sent her falling to Cheshire Cat and Kevin Regnard's feet. But in its place it had left her something else, something just as bad.

She could hear their voices. Their voices, in the castle, the heart of the land that was getting sucked in. One room, an agonized and familiar voice said, "Put your sword down. I don't want to kill you!" Torment ripped through her like an uncontrollable tsunami. In a hall, quiet sobbing filled, echoed, and bounced off the walls. "No … it's not my fault … please … it was only for Gil …" In a basement, a voice whispered to herself gleefully, "It has been done. Sablier is in the Abyss, and soon Glen will be mine, all mine …."

She understood. It wasn't just the events that were happening right then that were flowing through her mind, it was also the events of the past shortly earlier, everything that day that had led up to this point.

_Shhhhk_. Alice the Will of the Abyss froze. She recognized that sound. She had heard it before, having created it many times herself. It was a small slender blade, cutting through fabric … and flesh.

_Shhhhk_. _Shhhhk_. A clattering sound; something hard but light had fallen to the ground. A second later, light footsteps pounded and faded – something running away from the scene.

A rustle of skirts as a figure fell backwards. And then she saw, just a second before the body hit the ground.

Long, thick dark brown hair with two slender braids on either side just like the Will of the Abyss's, and the body it belonged to, falling back in almost slow motion and making it look as if the long hair was reaching up into the air it had been seconds ago. Purple eyes just one or two shades darker than Alice of the Abyss's, open wide but seeing nothing, clear tears brimming from it and spilling over it even in death. A face, exactly like hers in shape and definition. A lovely dress, worthy of a young girl high in status. And the wound, raking down from just the end of one side of her chin all the way down to her lower waist, blood spilling from it at a steady pace, as if it had all the time in the world to spill, staining her expensive-looking dress.

The body hit the ground with a thump. The face belonging to the dead, brown-haired girl stared up at the ceiling, already growing – she knew this without even touching – white and cold in death.

The vision vanished. _Alice_, the Alice of the Abyss thought in numb horror. _My sister, she of the same name as mine … she is dead_? _How is this possible_? _Who killed her_? _Why did_ –

Something clicked. Her sister had living Lacie's tower, the last time she'd seen her, just a day or two ago. She hadn't gotten a very good look at the place she had just watched her twin die, but as she strained to recall she figured it was probably Lacie's tower. She'd always lived in Lacie's tower, besides. And Lacie's tower … was in the country's capital, Sablier. But if the memory of Alice's death had flooded into her, then she had clearly been at the place that had been so suddenly dropped into the Abyss and had caused her so much pain.

But then, that huge place had been, that place with all the buildings and architecture and people and emotion – it couldn't be. _No_, she thought desperately to herself. Her previous happiness at finding eyes for Cheshire was already long gone. _No, it can't be. Because then … that place … this is –_

"This is Sablier."

Silence fell as the thoughts and feelings of others that had been dropped into Sablier vanished as quickly as it had come. As if the voice of that one little boy made it all go away.

Slowly, she sat up, finding Cheshire beside her and hovering over her protectively. She knew that voice, and now, hearing it speak to her to clearly and casually, it felt her with the unfamiliar feeling of dread. And the owner of that voice liked to carry scissors around, she and her sister and Cheshire knew from unhappy experiences involving Cheshire's missing eyes. And the small blade that killed the human Alice … could it have been scissors?

The little boy's voice said, "I did just as I was told. I opened the door to the Abyss all by myself. But then, everyone fell right into the Abyss."

Vincent smiled at her, his eyes looking mismatched eyes dark and malicious. She had never been able to figure out how a child of misfortune like him could be as _not_ like Lacie, the child of misfortune that was her mother.

"Why, hello there, Alice."

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	3. Lucky Yet Luckless

**I don't own Pandora Hearts.**

**Unlike the other two chapters, this is a chapter about Leo.**

THE BLACK ABYSS

THREE

LUCKY YET LUCKLESS

He stared across the group of people kneeling before him with an impassive, almost bored, look on his face, but inside he was a turmoil of conflicted emotions. These red-cloaked beings, the Baskervilles … they were not his people. They said he was their leader, their master, their new Glen Baskerville. Despite this all, he didn't know them. That is he didn't _know_ them. He knew their names but he had no idea what kind of people they were. He'd known Elliot better than he knew his new followers.

He could see his inner reflections on their faces, as well. They were disappointed, no matter how hard they tried to hide it. And they had good reason too. He knew the previous Glen himself – Oswald, whose soul survived in his mind as well as that of all previous Glens – and where Oswald was tall, commanding, and quiet but full of recognized authority, Leo was angry and sullen and wrathful. He wasn't Gilbert either – the one that was _supposed_ to have been the Glen after Oswald, not him. Gilbert could be weirdly charismatic, unlike him. The Raven's contractor would've made a better Glen than he.

Lottie. Dug. Lily. They were respectful but distant towards him. It was clear to Leo that he hadn't done anything to win their admiration and devotion yet; in their eyes, he was just a fairly bad-tempered boy who liked to read, without much leader material built inside him despite his vast knowledge thanks to all the books he'd read.

They'd succeeded in getting their Glen-sama. It was just that, their Glen-sama had been reincarnated in a way that they hadn't expected. When they'd set out in search of their head, they'd been looking for Oswald, or a person like Oswald, not Leo.

_You shouldn't complain_.

Of course not.

_They would prefer me, yes_, Oswald's voice whispers in his mind, _but nevertheless I am inside you and they acknowledge that. They acknowledge you as their leader. You are Glen Baskerville now, not me_.

He doesn't want to be Glen Baskerville.

_Stop it. This kind of thinking is beneath a leader. You shouldn't complain. You're lucky_.

No, he protests. He isn't.

_You are. You think it has been easy for us, your predecessors? We had families. Siblings, parents, children … with red eyes. Feel grateful. You never had to throw a beloved into the Abyss_.

He lost his best friend to, technically, the Abyss. Elliot had died sacrificing himself to get rid of his chain, Humpty Dumpty. Elliot hadn't had red eyes, but it was just as bad a loss.

_You're lucky_, insists Oswald oppressively. _At least you didn't have to _throw _your friend into the Abyss. You – you cannot imagine the agony of sending your own sister into the Abyss._

_Go find the Vessalius boy. Convince him to join us, if that is your wish. But if you cannot, you must either kill him or send him to the Abyss. That is your duty as Glen Baskerville._

Okay. After all, it wasn't as if he had much of a choice.

"Are you ready to retrieve Oz Vessalius … Glen-sama?" said Vincent hesitantly but respectfully, tilting his head to one side expectantly.. Echo stood behind him throwing off a red cloak, dully undoing a hair accessory that had been fastened onto a part of her pale hair while Zwei had been in control of their shared body.

He sighed. He was Glen Baskerville; there was no putting his duty off any longer. "Yes. Let's go." He began to walk towards Vincent, who nodded and looked almost relieved.

_Remember. You're lucky_.

But he wasn't.

**Review.**


	4. Reflection

**I don't own Pandora Hearts.**

**Retrace 74 came out. Which means I have to make modifications to the second chapter of The Black Abyss.**

**I've decided to try something new with this story. This chapter, unlike the past three, will be based on a conversation.**

THE BLACK ABYSS

FOUR

REFLECTION

"Alice! Alice, Alice!"

_Eh? Who's calling me? And why … is it so dark?_ "Who's there?"

"Can't you tell who it is through my voice? Turn around Alice, I'm right here."

"Oh! Alice!"

"Yes, it's me."

"Alice …."

"Yes, Alice?" _Why is she staring at me like that?_

"You're … on the other side … of a mirror."

"No, you are."

"Where are you?"

"I don't remember leaving the Abyss. Maybe this is a realm in it that I haven't come across yet. But I don't remember getting here, either."

"Then where are we?"

"I don't know."

"Say … Alice?"

"Yes?"

"How come … why is it … have you ever felt as you, I don't know, you could feel something I felt? Like, I experience something and then you kind of sense it?"

" … Why do you ask?"

"Because it's been happening to me a bit, I think. Sometimes I catch a glimmer of emotion, or a vision … a vision that I'm in your body, in the Abyss. Why do you think that is? Does it ever happen to you?"

"Well …." _Should I tell her? Yes, I guess I should. She's my twin sister, after all. Even if we don't like each other very much, I shouldn't keep this from her_. "Actually, I do. But I don't know why this is."

"That's strange."

"Yeah."

"I wonder why this mirror is here … whoa!"

"Oh my god, Alice! Your hand went right through the mirror! It came out on my end!"

"Is this real?"

"I don't know. Maybe it's just a dream I'm having. I've been having strange dreams lately. I wish it weren't so dark …."

"Wouldn't you be used to the dark? After all, you live in the Abyss. And if you're having this dream, then I'm having it too. Maybe it's a twin thing."

"Put your hand through the mirror again! I want to see if I can touch it."

"No! Why don't you?"

"Well, you've already done it once and nothing's happened to you, so we know you're in no danger! But I don't know how it'll react to me."

"Oh, don't be such a baby, Alice. You're the Intention of the Abyss, you should be braver. Besides, we share the same DNA except for whatever stupidity changed out hair colours, and whatever stupidity made you the Intention of the Abyss. You'll be fine."

"I don't know … I think you should do it. Why can't you ever listen to your older sister for once, you brat?"

"What? How do you know you're older? We're twins! The only other one present at our birth was our mother, and – and I'm not sure since I don't know who she is exactly but I'm pretty sure she's dead!"

"Easy, I was made the Will of the Abyss, and thus I am older."

"How does that explain anything?"

"I – oh whatever! Just put your hand through the mirror."

"You are so annoying." _But she won't budge. Might as well_.

"Ah! Alice, I can touch your hand!"

"Yes, and I can feel it! Okay, let me withdraw it now." _This is so strange. What could be happening? Am I really dreaming? It feels real …._

_I wonder what would happen if we stepped through at the same time. Would we crash into each other, or would something else happen? _"Hey, Alice … let's try stepping through at the same time."

"Whaaat? Why would I do that?"

"Because, you idiot! Maybe this mirror is here for a reason. We just have to find out what this is, if it's not a dream or something."

" … And if it is a dream or something, then it wouldn't hurt to try, right?"

_Yes! She's finally getting it through her thick skull of hers_. "Yes, that's right."

"Okay … we should hold hands and try to, you know, pull each other through, if that's possible."

"I don't think so … but maybe. It's worth a try. Here."

"Okay, ready?"

"I guess."

"… Do you want to count or do you want me to count?"

"Um … I guess I'll count. But are _you_ ready?"

"Sure! But I wonder where we'll end up."

"Maybe we'll just end up on opposite ends of the mirror."

_What's taking this so long?_ "Are you going to count, or not?"

"Don't rush me! I'm getting that that. Okay? Um … alright. One … two … three …."

**And that is my interpretation of the twins switching bodies for the first time. I mean, they had to manage it somehow, right?**

**I don't think they were in-character enough, but I'm happy enough with it.**

**Am I the only one who thinks that Jun Mochizuki will explain how the Abyss was created?**

**Review, please?**


	5. Dear Daughters

**I don't own Pandora Hearts.**

**Sorry for not updating in a while.**

THE BLACK ABYSS

FIVE

DEAR DAUGHTERS

One kick.

Ah. They were still there.

But of course they were. Why wouldn't they be? Wouldn't she have noticed if they'd slipped from within her?

Another kick.

She smiled half-heartedly at the action as she floated through the darkness, her first display of emotion in … how long had she been there? Days? Weeks? Months? Years? Millennia? Who knew?

"The Abyss is a place where time is out of order," she whispered, repeating what Revis said. "Even if you escape, there's no guarantee one can make it back to their own time."

She wouldn't escape – well. She both _couldn't_, and even if she could, she _wouldn't_. Nii-san had gone into a lot of trouble putting her here, after all.

She smiled - almost genuinely - again as she remembered the sulky look on Oswald's face when he performed the ceremony. Heh, trust Big Brother to pout like a three-year-old while doing his duty. No matter how calm he made himself look, or the fact that he was now Glen Baskerville, he would never be rid of his emotions.

As for Lacie – well, it wasn't as if she'd ever tried to erase them anyways. What a terrible bore it would be, to be someone that you knew wasn't yourself.

Kick.

Hmph. What on earth was taking so long? It was almost as if the Abyss was reluctant to have it join it.

It was unlike the Core of the Abyss to keep her waiting. But then again, she found she couldn't muster enough emotion to care.

She was tired. She could've fallen asleep hours ago, but she hadn't. She wanted to be awake when the Abyss dragged her straight down into its depths, not asleep. And who knew? The Abyss could grab her any moment now.

It wasn't that she cared much for her own life, and would fight it; she merely wished to be awake so she might adjust herself to a suitable position for her baby to be born.

Kick. Kick, kick.

What a strange feeling this was, of carrying a child inside of her. She wasn't quite sure what to make of it, and the feeling of worrying concern she hadn't remembered feeling so strongly for something for a long time.

There was also another feeling. It was familiar, though for a moment she couldn't place it. When she did, she realized just how selfish she was, and almost cried.

She was glad for the presence of the baby because she was _lonely_. She was lonely, and she _liked_ the presence of another human being about her.

Lacie felt like kicking herself. She should be wishing the child out of the Abyss instead of selfishly clinging to him or her for her own petty concerns.

Absentmindedly, she wondered if her child was a boy or a girl.

Kick.

Huh. What an energetic child.

Kick.

And Lacie frowned.

Something felt off about that kick.

Almost as if two feet were kicking simultaneously.

But she couldn't imagine her child jerking around so both feet would hit her at once, and at the same time as well.

And for a moment, the power of the Abyss was activated in her red eyes, and a shiver coursed through her as she realized what was happening.

"Twins?" she whispered in wonder, so overcome by this new idea that she totally ignored how the Abyss very suddenly split open beneath her. "Twins?"

Chains of gold and steel surged up, wrapping themselves around Lacie's limbs and binding her tight and immobile.

"Two … children?"

The chains dragged her down, and right before the void swallowed her, she let out a horrified scream.

"_TWINS_!"

**So generally, the main idea is that Lacie was (sort of) okay with the idea of her kid becoming the vessel for the Core, but when she figure out she had twins she figured that not both of them could become the new Will of the Abyss, and right before she was dragged down she came up with a whole bunch of bad scenarios of what might happen to her other child, or both now that she knows there's two.**

**Although we, on the other hand, know it turned out okay, with the white-haired one becoming the Will of the Abyss and the brown-haired one returning to Revis's world somehow.**

**Review?**


	6. Two Alices in Two Worlds

**I do not own Pandora Hearts.**

**So what's up everyone? Unlike most of my other stories when I post a new chapter, I don't think it's been two long since the last post. Probably because here, I've already planned out the chapters ….**

THE BLACK ABYSS

SIX

TWO ALICES IN TWO WORLDS

The rabbit doll named Oz couldn't quite see how it was possible to love them both.

They were complete opposites in personality, so wouldn't it make sense that if he loved one, he would hate the other?

The Alice that he knew best, the one with the long, dark hair – the one who looked like his creator, Lacie – was so bright and dazzling, sometimes he thought it burned. She was brash, bold, loud, foul-mouthed, energetic, stubborn, and independent, and she could be mean and cruel, but when she smiled, it made everything else go away. She was like the sun itself.

But if Alice was the sun, the Intention was the moon. Like her twin, the Alice of the Abyss could be loud and demanding when she wanted to, but solitude in the Abyss had rarely brought this feature up. Instead, most of the time, she was quiet, shy, reserved, serene, a bit naïve and a bit cold, and when she smiled, she didn't light everything up like her darker-haired counterpart did. When the Intention smiled her bittersweet smile, – as long as it wasn't one of her wide, mad smiles – it made you want to protect her. Cheshire did, at least.

The rabbit doll thought he'd rather protect the sunnier Alice, whose light he wanted to keep bright forever, but he rather liked the Intention too. _Her_ light, at least, seemed in more danger of flickering out than the brown-haired Alice's.

They were twins, so they probably did care for each other on some degree, but they were complete and total opposites, so the idea of getting along was nearly foreign to them. As a result, the rabbit doll couldn't quite see how one could love them both without getting caught in the middle of the spats.

He knew that at one point, Cheshire had tried, and failed, and had given up on Alice and had forever decided to side with the Intention. But Cheshire hadn't been with them since the beginning. Oz had, and had existed even before that.

It was hard for him to imagining life without either Alice, even if he favoured the more short-tempered one. Alice and the Intention were both best friends and worst enemies – a complicated relationship, and one he had long since realized that not many people wanted to get into. It was impossible to show affection for both Alices without getting torn to one side, not when they were always arguing and fighting.

Impossible, but true.

At least, for him.

**Some of these chapters might correspond with my other story, Words Written in Darkness, but that's relatively rare.**

**Review?**


	7. Sablier

**I do not own Pandora Hearts.**

**I know I haven't updated this story in a while; sorry. I was a bit late going back to school coming back from vacation, and I needed a little while to sort everything out. I'll try to update a little more often, though I can't make any promised. Still, I like writing this story and I don't think updating will be a huge problem.**

THE BLACK ABYSS

SEVEN

SABLIER

She quietly walked down the hall, _looking_ like the only pure thing in this twisted world, not even wincing as her bare feet squelched against the remnants of nearly, but not quite, dried blood.

There weren't any bodies left; all the victims had either turned to chains, or their bodies had disintegrated under the pressure of the power of the Abyss. The pools of blood under which the people had lost their lives still remained, though, and so did the smell of it, and remnants of flesh burning.

It was all rather sickening, but walking serenely through the beautifully designed halls, with their columns half-broken from the impact of being dropped into the Abyss, and the glorious darkness as the landscape beyond, she couldn't help but feel an overwhelming feeling of peace.

She couldn't believe she had felt so much pain feeling this beautiful and broken place go down, entering and drowning in her kingdom. How could anything so lovely, hurt so much?

She suspected that part of her wasn't actually okay with these ruins because they were beautiful; but because she could barely remember it, and the parts she could remember were vague and indistinct. She was glad for this, and wouldn't have it any other way; she'd rather not hate such a lovely place just because of what had happened there.

She would keep this place alive here forever, she vowed. Lacie's tower she would destroy, in case the bits and pieces she remembered hurt her, but the rest she would clean; remove the blood stains on the walls and floors, and then it would be preserved forever. She'd not let a single chain other than Cheshire, and now the other Alice (since, the other Alice had technically become a chain now), lay a foot on it.

They reached the end of the hall, where a set of huge doors lay. She lay her slender fingers on them, and they opened for her in a way she fantasised had never opened for anyone else before.

They explored, room after room. She was smiling. Finally, after years of being cooped up in that stupid tower, she was allow to explore the Baskervilles' mansion as much as she liked, and it was empty, void, with no one to stop her, be it Glen or another suspicious Baskerville.

Finally, she had had her fill of the mansion, and decided to return to her room now. She paused to let Cheshire lick the blood that had splashed on his hands, and then she took in one hand one of his claws, and they departed as the Abyss swallowed Lacie's tower in the distance.

**Short as usual.**

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	8. The Worst Chain

**I don't own Pandora Hearts.**

**A little while ago I read Pandora Hearts Retrace 78: Decision.**

**Lots of people say they cried during the past few chapters. I haven't cried yet, but almost every chapter leaves me shocked and raging and going, "WTF?!" at a certain character.**

**In the chapter before Lacie, I went WTF at Jack. In that other chapters which name I forget, I went WTF at Leo. During Bloody Rabbit, I didn't really go WTF, I was more, "WHY ALICE WHY" and then "STUPID JACK TECHNICALLY IT'S YOUR FAULT SHE DIED I'LL KILL YOU".**

**In the chapters after Bloody Rabbit, I started going -_- to Oz because he was getting too depressed. Understandably, he has a whole bunch of very good reasons to be depressed, but really, he's like Oswald, blaming himself and shouldering everything himself. Stop being depressed, Oz! Start listening to Echo!**

**For the latest chapter, Decision, I went WTF at Oswald AND Gilbert.**

**I understand why they did what they did … but I still feel a little shell-shocked. Still, I'm glad Gilbert came through. It would've been weird if he hadn't done something about what he did to Oz.**

**I feel bad for Leo.**

THE BLACK ABYSS

EIGHT

THE WORST CHAIN

All chains were destructive, but her friend the Blood-stained Black Rabbit, a chain meant to sever the chains surrounding the world, was the most powerful, and deadly, of them all.

The rabbit doll it had once been, and the growling it monster it now appeared as, were both recognizable as a rabbit; they also both had the same dark brown hair, the ruby eyes, the same intelligence, and the same red checkered coat her twin had given him. And yet … they were different. The person deep inside was the same, but the rabbit doll she had smiled so lovingly at in the pits of the Abyss was the same rabbit she could not help flinching away from as she observed the monster from afar.

The person inside the monster was still the kind, thoughtful person that had been in the rabbit doll, she said to herself. Nothing has changed. Oz is the same.

And he probably was, but no matter how hard she tried, no matter how hard she strained, she could not manage to convince herself, not even a little bit, that Oz was still kind.

It was strange. Oz had been her and her sister's friend since the very beginning – the one soul, dwelling in two bodies. He would've done lots for her, and anything for her sister. Sure, one of his bodies disintegrated when he gave up his body for Lacie's memory, but he was still there, dwelling in the other one. Technically, it was her fault that the other Alice wept about not being able to see him except in the Abyss, but they were still together. Nothing had changed, and she had thought next to nothing of it. Because she'd still had Oz with her real body at all times, and took it for granted, while the other Alice became lonely, only able to stay with him when they switched and she descended into the darkness that was the Abyss.

Maybe it was because she'd taken him for granted, and had never really considered the risk of losing a friend, that she'd willingly turned him into what he was now.

B-rabbit.

Chain.

All for Jack. Oz she liked, Cheshire she liked, but Jack … she'd always thought she was happiest when she was with him. He seemed so bright, so warm, so cheerful, so flawless. It was hard to believe it when he'd said he wanted to go visit her.

She had wanted him to. Wanted so bad, she would do anything to grant his wish – her wish. She reached out to Oz's remaining body without a thought for how the other Alice might feel, and in the space of a heartbeat, he was a chain.

Tall, fearsome, revolting. The chain meant to destroy all other chains, and even the chains surrounding and supporting the world.

She gave him to Jack at the same time she flinched away with him, immediately appalled at how ugly he'd become, and appalled at herself for thinking that way.

It turned out, Jack didn't love her. In fact, because of him, because he existed, simply because he wanted to see her – though did he really? – he would've thrown the world into the Abyss. She realized later, when Alice died and when Sablier fell, how many people it would kill. How many lives would be destroyed. One city physically hurt her – the whole world would be close to murder.

Oz had been fine before. She regretted it, turning him into a chain. If Jack hadn't had Oz, would Sablier had fallen into the Abyss? Would Alice had lived? Would she still have her friend?

She wished she hadn't done it, but she had, and there wasn't any changing the past for _her_. The outside world she could change, but the Abyss was unnoticeable in that area, even to herself.

No matter where Oz went, what he did, whatever bodies he inhabited – he'd always be B-Rabbit, the worst chain of all.

**Depressing.**

**I don't think Oz is ever going to stop being B-Rabbit – it's part of himself, who he is. After all, even if he didn't start off as the Bloody Black Rabbit, he was a rabbit doll in the beginning. It'd be like asking Oswald to stop being Glen. But I don't think that being himself is a bad thing. It's like discriminating against Lacie because she's a Child of Misfortune. Being the Child of Misfortune is what made Lacie what she was. Being B-Rabbit put Oz through a whole bunch of stupid things courtesy of Jack, but it also gave Oz a second chance at a life, and a second chance to protect Alice.**

**Still. I kinda hate Jack for making Oz and Alice go through all that.**

**And then, after he screwed up all their lives, he has the nerve to wander around Lacie's tower calling out for her (well, the Intention, but whatev) anyways, in a last-ditch chance to get what he wants?**

**(See latest chapter.)**

**He was so awesome back when he was a 'hero'.**

**And so annoying now that he's evil.**

**Although on the other hand, I still kinda feel bad for him. I mean, Lacie …**

**Way wrong way to go about trying to make her not-lonely, though.**

**Sorry for putting you through another long author's note.**

**Review?**


	9. Snow White Dreams, Snow White Nightmares

**I don't own Pandora Hearts.**

THE BLACK ABYSS

NINE

SNOW WHITE DREAMS, SNOW WHITE NIGHTMARES

Dancing, gliding, turning, swirling, singing, crying, smiling, laughing.

And like always, he'd not be able to take his eyes of that pure white. She seemed to glow, light seeping under her skin and through her eyes and into her long, eye-burning hair that surrounded her like her very own version of a halo.

She would appear coming through purple curtains, and she was glide up to him gracefully, a sweet smile on her face, a suspicious gleam in her eye. She would take his unresisting hand in her small, slender ones, and would ask him, gently, if he had fulfilled her wish yet.

His throat would always feel dry, and he'd want to swallow, but wouldn't be able to. He would wish to leave, to be anywhere but there, but he'd tried it a few times before, and she always, always found him again.

Slowly, he would shook her head. Her smile would melt off her face like already-warm butter under the full heat of the sun. she would release him a dance back, looking at him with a hideous scowl on her face.

She'd scream at him. Yell at him, sometimes in full-blown rage, sometimes screaming in anguish with tears in her eyes, pouring down her cheeks like waterfalls. Sometimes she'd take his other eye; or the dolls would swarm him, clawing at his limbs; or the cat would fling him back with those giant claws; or she'd pound at his chest, shouting; or she'd merely glare and the direct power of the Abyss to stab through him like a burning laser.

No matter what she did, no matter how angry or unhappy she seemed, she'd always be screaming the same thing, usually over and over again.

_You said you'd grant my wish! I granted yours, didn't I, you ungrateful, stupid, low, good-for-nothing, Child of Ill Omen! It must have been because you, and that other red-eyed child, was there! It must've been your fault Jack died! Your fault! Your fault! Why did you come here again today? I want you to grant my wish! You said you'd grant my wish! Did you lie? I'll kill you if you lied! You will join the master you left behind! Why am I still the Intention of the Abyss? I don't want to be the Intention of the Abyss anymore! Where is my sister, Alice? Is she safe? Why haven't you saved that girl yet? WHY?!_

Even if she started out angry in the beginning, by the end, she'd be weeping crystalline tears, collapsed on the floor or in the arms of the cat, looking as pitiful as any unhappy child.

_It hurts!_ she'd sometimes say. _I don't want it to hurt! Why does it hurt? Jack! Cheshire! Alice! Oz! Glen! Revis! Lacie! Jack! Answer me, please!_

Even after he killed the cat in the living world, Cheshire still appeared sometimes in the dreams. Sometimes with his own eye staring out at him, and sometimes with bandages wrapped around hollow eye sockets.

Things always varied after the Intention had that breakdown. Things also became hazy after that. When he woke up with a jolt and a shudder, he'd never be able to remember what he was dreaming about a few moments ago. Sometimes he had flashes of remembrance – blood splattering on water, a head rolling, a hiss, a flash of black, a red ribbon trailing, a scream.

He had the dreams rather often – once each month, maybe. And for days afterwards, whenever he would close his eyes, she'd be there, smiling.

Alice of the Abyss, as pure and twisted as a lovely nightmare.

**Yep. That was Break.**

**Review?**


	10. Hatred

**I don't own Pandora Hearts.**

**So far, I've planned out 25 chapters for this story. This number might change depending on whether or not I get any new ideas.**

**The last chapter will be called Retrace, btw.**

THE BLACK ABYSS

TEN

HATRED

They didn't understand. Jack wasn't theirs, he was hers. _Hers_. And she'd never let anyone take that away from her.

Jack was her everything. Every passing day was filled with thoughts of him, his smile, his glow … his love. Without Jack, she'd be nothing. _Nothing_.

But those others … those selfish, stupid, bastardly people, they didn't care. And they were filth, scum, for thinking of it all like that!

She hated them. _How she hated them_. Gilbert, Vincent, Levi, Glen. She wanted to see them torn to pieces, and then waltz, with high heels clicking and sloshing against the pools of their blood.

That was the price of taking him away from her.

In that aspect, she'd realized with satisfaction, she was like that other Alice. She would never, ever, ever let anyone take away what was hers.

And surely – _surely_ – Jack was hers.

He smiled at her. He was especially kind to her. And maybe he'd never said he'd loved her, but he always gave her as much attention as she needed, and he liked to talk about seeing her. So he must love her.

_You're wrong, Alice_, her sister often said to her. _He doesn't love you any more than he loves me; he's just pretending to. You know what he's like when he takes you to see the grave. Glen told me the person that was more important to him than anything was Lacie_.

Her words went ignored. The other Alice was mean and cruel and liked to tell lies, anyways.

But she would prove it to her – prove it to all of them. Jack said he was coming to visit her in the Abyss – the surest sign of love, of course, because who but a man truly in love would come visit their dearest in the once-beautiful hellhole?

He'd asked for her help, of course. And she would give it to him. She would give him anything if it enabled him to find her in the darkness.

And if that didn't work, she'd just kill the others. Then Jack would be hers alone.

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	11. Vanessa

**I do not own Pandora Hearts.**

THE BLACK ABYSS

ELEVEN

VANESSA

She always hated the Abyss.

She'd hated it from the moment her mother gathered her and Elliot in her lap and told them stories of it before she tucked them to bed.

Stories of a plain of endless, watery darkness; things floating through the air; chains with beady eyes and wide-mouthed, stitched grins. As Vernice Nightray tucked them in and said, "Good-night," her little brother Elliot spoke up and said the words she'd thought but hadn't given voice to.

"Why would you tell us such a horrible stories before we go to bed?"

The Duchess paused, and then shrugged. "I suppose … as a reminder, that no matter what, the Abyss can't touch you here." She smiled and hugged them both. "Not while I'm here."

Elliot hadn't looked consoled in the least, though he refused to say he was afraid at all; but Vanessa felt comforted. She didn't doubt her Mother's love and devotion.

But time passed and things changed. A being came out of the darkness, born as if to kill them all. One by one she watched her family slip away from her – Uncle, Fred, Claude, Ernest. Even Gilbert was targeted, even though he'd once been a mere servant and hadn't become a Nightray through birth.

(However, unlike the others, Gilbert survived. She couldn't help but feel a prickle of resentment then. Why had he lived while the others died?)

Their father mourned his sons but besides that turned a blind eye. Their mother became more and more distant and ever-increasingly unstable, and she knew then that there was nothing their mother could do about it, do about anything. If she even still had the will to try.

She hated him – the person who targeted them and them alone.

And she hated the Abyss most of all, because though it was surely a human orchestrating these murders, his accomplice was a chain as well.

The Head Hunter. Humpty Dumpty. Queen of Hearts. Regardless of its name, it wouldn't have come to be if not for the Abyss. So in a sense, the Abyss was responsible for killing her family.

They all left her, one by one, either by death or neglect or distance, until all she had was the youngest of the Nightray children, her brother Elliot. Elliot, who had sworn to eliminate the Head Hunter, whom she knew through that promise had suffered more than she ever would.

Despicable Abyss. If it could burn, she thought it ought to.

"Don't … patronize me," she said to Elliot's servant, but he already had his back turned to her, and she knew he couldn't hear him. She didn't know if she wanted him to hear her.

She bit her bottom lip, angry and frustrated, and then she turned on the staircase and saw Elliot, staring at her from the top, the expression in his eyes blank, as if he were in a trance. Vanessa immediately felt relief flood through her. "You're awake," she began, and then she stopped.

A dark shadow was beginning to gather in the space above his head. It took the shape of a body – or rather, a huge, circular head, and then formed eyes, many eyes, and a wide, froggish, shrieking mouth with a long, whipping tongue.

And she wondered if it really was the Abyss's doing after all. Surely not even _that_ could be so cruel.

Then the tongue whipped towards her, lightning-fast, and everything vanished. Her soul was swallowed by a curtain as dark as the Abyss itself as her head tumbled to the ground, followed by her body a second later.

**I think that was one of the better chapters so far.**

**Review?**


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